


take your time on me

by citrina



Series: i never wanted anybody else [5]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Avatar: The Last Airbender (Comics)
Genre: Bakoda - Freeform, F/M, Kataang - Freeform, M/M, North and South Comics (Avatar), aang is fourteen, aang makes a cameo, apparently having a pet poodle monkey makes you gay?, based on north and south, bato actually never does anything lol, he been knew that his dad and bato were an item, he has the bi detector, idk i wrote this in like 2 hrs and didn't edit, its ok bc nobody knows who he is, katara is fifteen, kataras not homophobic i swear, maliq is a dick, sokka is just chillin, sokka is seventeen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:01:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25544041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/citrina/pseuds/citrina
Summary: Set during the North & South comics, but instead of walking in on Hakoda making out with Malina, Sokka and Katara walk in on Hakoda and Bato.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Bato/Hakoda (Avatar)
Series: i never wanted anybody else [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1852534
Comments: 9
Kudos: 136
Collections: Bakoda Fleet Week 2020





	take your time on me

**Author's Note:**

> Bakoda Fleet Week Day 1: With Kids
> 
> Happy Bakoda Fleet Week! This fic is an AU of the North & South comics, so it's probably best if you read the comic first, since some of the minor stuff mentioned won't make sense otherwise. However this stuff is not vital to the plot and is mostly just there bc that's what's going on in the larger plot of the comic. Basically in the original, Sokka and Katara catch Hakoda making out with this lady Malina, who is a Northern Water Tribe architect helping redesign the South. Malina is nice but highkey boring (and not Bato, this is Bakoda week), so I thought it would be interesting to see the same scenes with Bakoda instead.
> 
> Much of the dialogue in this fic was lifted directly or edited from the comics North & South Parts 1 and 2. The title is from the song "Snow Giant" by The Riverside. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own the ATLA cartoon, comics, or any other official affiliated content! If I did, Azula would've had a redemption arc.

Katara can’t believe all that’s changed. 

Sozin’s Comet and the end of the war seem so long ago, yet she feels like she and Sokka left on Appa’s back that fateful day to save Aang only a few months ago. It seems impossible that their tiny village has somehow grown into this industrial city. The Northern Water Tribe “Reconstructionists”, Malina and Maliq, seem just a little too interested (and invested) to be selfless. 

Not only that, but she and Sokka narrowly escape an encounter with the “Patriots” who stole Malina’s briefcase. Katara can’t believe that Gilak, who she remembers fighting alongside on the Day of Black Sun, would turn against her dad, but what disturbs her more is that what he’s saying sort of makes sense. The Northerners do make her uneasy, and they do seem to be trying to turn the Southern Tribe into a cheap imitation of the north. 

Katara remembers how upset Aang had been at the factories in Cranefish Town. Aang would know what to think about all this; as the Avatar, he always seems to come up with a happy compromise for everyone. She misses her boyfriend, but he’s busy in the Fire Nation right now, and she can’t ask him to abandon his duties just to comfort her. Sokka is no help, seeing as he loves machines and seems thrilled that the South is becoming more like the North.

She’s glad to see Gran-Gran’s little igloo still sitting proudly between two much taller buildings, right where it’s always been. Katara is more than ready for a good night’s sleep after they explain to their dad what happened with Gilak. Idly, Katara wonders what happened to their neighbors, Tiyuk and Miki, a young couple who made the best walrus-whale steak in the village. When Maliq stops them outside the igloo, she’s ready to push him out of the way and march inside to talk to Dad, but they have to tell him the bad news about the briefcase.

“Sokka! Katara!” Maliq waves. His smile, as always, is very wide and very white.

“Is Malina okay?” Katara asks, despite her constant desire to freeze the guy’s mouth shut. Malina had been knocked out during the attack in the restaurant, and even though she doesn’t really like her, Katara might be able to heal her fellow waterbender.

“She’s awake, thank heavens. She’s resting right now in the hotel. Your father is in there,” Maliq says, pointing at the igloo.

“Wow, there’s a hotel?” Sokka asks. Katara gives him a look. This is not the time for off-topic questions!

“Were you able to get the briefcase?” Maliq asks, ignoring Sokka’s question.

“I’m sorry, Maliq,” Katara says. Before she and Sokka can explain what happened, though, Maliq storms off ranting about the South’s lack of “rules and regulations” and its “poor notions of justice”. Katara is a little offended on her tribe’s behalf. Their legal system is loads better than plenty of Earth Kingdom villages, like that horrible Chin Village that almost boiled Aang in oil!

Sokka and Katara open the door to Gran-Gran’s igloo. Katara aches from cold and exhaustion and the fatigue of seeing so many new things in one day. She’s ready to turn in and find the briefcase in the morning, maybe after a good breakfast of salted halibut and sea prune juice. She can’t believe all that’s changed, but at least some things can remain the same.

But apparently not. Because lying on the bed is their dad. And with him is Bato. 

And they’re kissing.

.oOo.

Sokka can’t focus on the tour. 

This is unfortunate, because normally he’d be super into it. Giant factory? Cool. Awesome machines? Suitably awesome. Weirdly quiet Katara, for once?

Well. Maybe that’s not so great. 

“Katara? You okay?” Sokka asks his sister. She’s staring at the snow as if it holds divine truth. Or maybe she’s wondering how fast she can bend it into a snowball to smack Sokka in the face for annoying her.

“I still can’t get the image of Dad kissing Bato out of my head,” Katara says softly, so that Maliq and Malina can’t hear. 

“I know. But Dad’s a grownup. He gets to-- ugh,” Sokka says, rolling his eyes. “Now I’ve got that image in my head. Thanks a lot,” he waves one hand dramatically, recalling how they’d walked in on Dad practically shoving his tongue down Bato’s throat last night. Talk about weird. 

“Why’d it have to be Bato?” Katara asks. “He’s, like, our uncle or something. It just doesn’t seem right for Dad to date someone he’s known his whole life.”

“Look, I’m pretty sure that to us, nobody but Mom will ever seem right for Dad,” Sokka says. “But maybe that’s okay, because Dad gets to choose who’s right for Dad.”

Katara doesn’t look comforted by it, but it’s the best Sokka can offer. To be honest, he’s not nearly as surprised as Katara. He remembers Chameleon Bay, the few precious hours he’d spent alone with the other Water Tribe men before Azula took Ba Sing Se. He remembers how Bato had stood just a bit closer than the other men to his Chief, and how before they attacked the Fire Nation on the Day of Black Sun, their father pulled Bato aside and hugged him tighter than anyone except perhaps his own children.

He remembers further back than that, how Bato was the one to take him ice dodging when his real father couldn’t, how Bato had been the one to teach Sokka how to deshell shark-snails and patch holes in wooden boat hulls and sharpen his club-sword safely. How Bato had been nearly as much of a father as his true one, especially in the early days after Mom died, when Hakoda was in too much grief and Katara was too young and Gran-Gran was too tired. Of all the men, Bato was the only one that Hakoda had ever trusted to help him paint his Warrior’s Mask after Kya died. The painting of the mask was traditionally a role reserved for wives, but Bato and Hakoda did each other’s.

“But we don’t get any say at all?” Katara asks, hurt shining in her blue eyes. “What if they get married, Sokka? He’d be our… our…” 

Sokka sees the realization dawn on her. The realization that Bato was kind of already their parent, and that he couldn’t replace their mother because he’d already carved out a space for himself years ago. He’d already become part of the family, long before they’d realized it.

.oOo.

The festival is beautiful, but Katara can only think about one thing.

She spots her father standing guard by the massive, ostentatious new archway gate (which looks suspiciously like the one on the eastern wall of the Northern Water Tribe city). He looks as sturdy and unbreakable as always, especially in his thick winter coat. Katara thinks back to the stereotypes she’d heard about, of men who loved other men; her father doesn’t resemble any of them. She can’t imagine him being fussy over his clothing, or having a pet poodle-monkey, or any of the other less-than-kind things she’d learned about in her time in the Earth Kingdom. Her father has always appeared a pillar of masculinity, and deeply in love with her mother. He’d been devastated for so long after her death.

“Katara! What are you doing here?” her dad calls.

“Thought you might want some company. Are you guys planning to stay here all night?” Katara gestures to the multiple pairs of warriors scattered in front of the wall, all decked out in their most intimidating spears and club-swords. 

“At least until the festival’s over,” Hakoda says, his face stern. “Just in the last two days, Malina was attacked, you and your brother were almost kidnapped, and a secret army left me a threatening message in an underground cavern. We need to be vigilant.”

“You’re worried Gilak might attack the festival,” Katara realizes. Maybe this isn’t the right time to talk to her dad about Bato. But if she doesn’t talk to him about it now, Katara knows she might never gather the courage to try again.

“Yes,” Hakoda confirms. They make their way to a bench against the wall, where they sit. “Katara? You’re worried about something, too. Tell me.”

“It’s nothing,” Katara says, suddenly aware of how unimportant her concerns are compared to the very real danger of Gilak’s forces. But Katara’s been in plenty of life-threatening political conflicts; she’s never had to worry about her father’s love life. Weirdly, she’s more comfortable with the former situation.

“It’s about Bato,” Hakoda guesses.

“Well… yeah,” Katara admits. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“I should have, and I’m sorry about that. But I wasn’t sure if you and Sokka were ready.”

Katara can’t help but ask. “But are you sure you’re ready? Can I be honest?”

“Of course.”

“I don’t get why you’d choose Bato,” Katara says. “I mean, you’ve known him forever.”

“That’s why I chose him, Katara,” Hakoda explains gently. “I already know him at his best, and at his worst. And he knows me just as well.”

“But don’t you think if you were going to… you know, fall for him, it would’ve happened a long time ago?” 

“Katara,” Hakoda smiles, “did you fall for Aang when you first met him?”

“Well… no,” Katara admits. “But that’s different! He was just a kid! And also I was pretty distracted by the whole popping-out-of-an-iceberg thing!”

“It is different, but at the same time it’s very similar,” Hakoda says. “We were kids when we met, and kids when we became friends. It took a long time for me to consider us anything else.”

“But what about Mom? Did you know you liked Bato even back then?” Katara has a terrible thought and almost gasps. “Did you not love Mom all that time, and actually loved Bato?”

“No, no, Katara,” Hakoda says vehemently. “I loved your mother with my whole heart and love her still. I think I loved Bato back then, too, but I wasn’t in love with him.”

“So then when did you know the difference?” Katara asks. She remembers how Aang had kissed her before the eclipse and then flew off, how she’d been so confused. How she’d spent the next few weeks wondering why every smile from Aang felt so precious and why every time they set up camp she found herself drifting near him and why, why, why. She can’t imagine spending years and years like that. She thinks it’s impressive her father hadn’t gone mad in that time.

“I knew when he was burned in a skirmish with some Fire Nation troops,” Hakoda says. “That burn was the reason he had to stay at that abbey in the Earth Kingdom, the one he met you and Sokka at. We sailed on without him, and I found myself constantly turning around to look for him, and feeling terribly nervous all the time waiting for his letters like some kind of frail noblewoman.” He laughs. “The pieces sort of clicked into place after that.”

“That long?” Katara asks. “But… you weren’t together after Ba Sing Se, were you?” She thinks she would have noticed, what with everybody being crammed on the Fire Navy ship together.

“No, we weren’t,” Hakoda chuckles, “because I was too much of a possum-chicken to say anything until after war ended.”

“I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but… I never really would have thought that you’d be… you know… interested in men that way.” Katara recalls, again, all of the stereotypes she’d heard about in the Earth Kingdom.

“I know. I never thought so either,” Hakoda smirks, “I thought every man appreciated his fellow warriors’ muscles just as much as I did.”

Katara makes a face. “Really, Dad? I just meant…” she shrugs, unsure how to finish the sentence.

“No, I get it,” Hakoda says. “But to be honest, in all my travels I’ve found that those stereotypes are just that. There’s stereotypes, and they’re far from accurate. Don’t believe the rumors you hear in the Earth Kingdom- I’ve heard that Sokka was the Avatar and that Momo could earthbend!” 

Katara laughs. “Okay, so those are maybe our doing…”

“And Katara,” Hakoda says more seriously, “You’re old enough now that we can talk about these things. You know what it’s like to be in love, right?”

Katara recalls how exhilarating it feels to fight alongside Aang, knowing without a doubt that they have each other’s backs; how his smile, bright and wide, never fails to make her smile too; how he always compliments her like he’s stating facts; how he bears the weight of his Avatar title gracefully; how he never, never pressures Katara into doing something she doesn’t want, but always advises her well. 

“Yeah,” Katara says. Because she does. 

“So you know that the right kind of love -- the kind that’s real -- that kind of love is stronger than nation or gender or age. I love Bato as much as I loved your mother, and that doesn’t change just because it happened later or because we’re both men. Do you understand?”

Before Katara can respond, she hears a very familiar rumble. Glancing up, her eyes confirm it- it’s Appa! And on his head is a bright spot of orange-and-yellow waving vigorously down at her.

When Aang jumps off Appa’s head twelve feet in the air just so he can get to Katara a moment faster, Katara understands.

**Author's Note:**

> This was my first ever Avatar comic-based fic as I've found that most people haven't read them, but I thought this would be worth a shot. Let me know how I did! You can visit me on tumblr at chief-yue.tumblr.com and chat!


End file.
